It’s over two years now that we’ve been hearing about TMNT director Kevin Munroe‘s adaptation of the Italian comic series Dylan Dog. News that Brandon Routhwould play the character first bubbled up in early 2008, and the film shot last year. It doesn’t yet have a US distributor (hence a lack of major presence at Comic Con this year) but will premiere in Italy later this year.

Now there’s an Italian news report that has the first clips of footage, including shots of Routh in character.

We don’t see a lot here, but it’s enough to whet my appetite for the film. What we do see here is more or less what you’d expect: dark, a little weird, a little violent. I want to see more of Routh’s, especially after his great appearance in Scott Pilgrim, and hope that he’s as effective here as he is for Edgar Wright.

You might not get much of a sense for what the film is about from this clip (not least because the news report isn’t in English) so here’s a quick overview of the comic series:

Meet Dylan Dog, a British detective [ed: though the film takes place in Louisiana] who is fascinated by fear, and has made it his profession. Those who turn to him for help are not the typical wronged husbands who want to have their wives shadowed-his clients are people who have had a brush with the supernatural, people desperate for someone to believe their stories. That someone is Dylan Dog, the world’s only Investigator of Nightmares. While paying tribute to time-honored monsters in literature and film like Frankenstein, the Werewolf and Dracula, Dylan Dog also offers a blend of horror, humor, and sophisticated storytelling.

And if you’re interested in this material and haven’t seen Cemetery Man, check that film out. It’s an adaptation of a novel called Dellamorte Dellamore (also the film’s original Italian title) and features Rupert Everett as a character that occasionally appears in the Dylan Dog series. The film plays as a sort of existential zombie movie, and is a perennial favorite of mine. (Everett was also the visual inspiration for Dylan Dog.)